Google is Australia's most influential brand among consumers according to a new study released today by Ipsos Australia.

The global Most Influential Brands study, which included brands in Australia for the first time this year, seeks to measure the 'influence' of brands based five factors identified by Ipsos that drive influence: engagement, trustworthy, leading edge, corporate citizenship and presence. It measured 100 brands in Australia and ranked each based on their level of influence.

Says Gillian O'Sullivan, Ipsos marketing managing director: "In
order to exert influence, a brand needs to impact or change the way
people shop, think, act and behave. It needs to become a fundamental
part of life, shape consumers' desires and help consumers get through
their day.

"A
brand must be seen to be really important in the world today and even
impact the way people interact with one another. Even more than this,
people need to identify with the brand, it needs to have relevancy in
their life and it needs to become part of everyday language."

Google's
highest score was in the driver of 'leading edge' including measures
such as: led its competitors, has forever changed the consumer landscape,
stands out and is innovative. Google also topped the global list of
Most Influential Brands.

The Most
Influential Brands study was based on an online survey of 1,000
Australian adults using the Ipsos iView panel. The same survey was
conducted in nine other markets including Canada, US, UK, France,
Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and China with a total sample size of
15,152. Each respondent was randomly allocated 10 brands from a list of
100 to evaluate over a number of key metrics and statements.